Our Time Is Not Now: Youth Organizing And The AAPI Community

I often see think pieces, status updates, and tweet storms around how “our time is now.” That it’s time now for us to fight for change. Time to talk to our titas and 叔叔(shū shu) about social movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #NoMuslimBanEver. It’s our time now for us to help a new generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) folks to discover their collective power. But unfortunately, the time was never now.

When I was a sophomore at Florida State University, I joined the Asian American Student Union executive board. I was bright-eyed and ready to fight for social equity now. However, as most AAPI college organizers can empathize, my organization prioritized cultural and social activities over social justice organizing. While my board was supportive, my community was not, and I felt burned out because I did not have a support system to fight against systemic injustices in our communities. People told me that “racism doesn’t exist, sit down Kathryn.” But I kept organizing, and when I left college I wanted to continue my work to help other young, bright-eyed college students fight the good fight.

APIAVote works with and uplifts passionate AAPI college students from across the country through its Ambassador program.

While the AAPI community has a record increase of registered voters since 2012, we still have a long way to go. Our voting rates remain low at 49 percent, still 16 percent behind our white counterparts. This is the reason why at APIAVote we work with and uplift passionate AAPI college students from across the country through our Ambassador program. We are pushing to close these parity gaps, and our ambassadors engage both their friends and community in civic engagement and participation. Whether it’s through voting or having open dialogue about why it’s important to care about issues that impact our everyday lives, I’m honored to be working with such resilient individuals who will continue to shape our future.

When we invest in our AAPI youth, we invest in all AAPIs. They are the bridge to talking to the older generation who may have refused to civically participate or vote because they simply did not understand the process. As young AAPIs, we take on the role as interpreters and spokespeople for our parents and families on issues that matter to us.

Through my experiences at APIAVote and the East Coast Asian American Student Union, I have seen the flaws in how we organize young AAPI folks and how young people are uplifting their own communities. We often depend on leaders to be the driving force of our movements. Yet we don’t invest enough in fostering the growth of young AAPI leaders on an institutional level. Like myself, there are bright-eyed students out there who want to activate their campuses but lack the knowledge, resources, and support networks that would put them at the forefront of a self-empowered movement.

The main issue is that we have built a relationship of parachuting into young folks’ spaces. We say, “Now, more than ever before it’s time for us to come together as a community and make our voices heard.” So we fly in and build students up to care about issues, and register their friends and families to vote. Then Election Day passes: we dial back and come back in two to four years, leaving students energized without an outlet for year-round civic engagement. We need to make it a goal that we are not constantly living in the “our time is now” relationship with students, but to think and work critically for us to forever and always build relationships, build power, and build infrastructure to support and uplift young folks to become the next generation of leaders. It’s up to us as community organizers, it’s up to student leaders. It’s up to all of us.

Voting is one of the first steps, but not the only step. Without voting and actively participating in our democracy, we lose our electoral power. Encouraging your friends and community to register and vote will be the baseline of any movement. Next, we must continue to formalize relationships with young AAPIs and build a leadership pipeline for our community. Through this longer-term strategy we can build a strong base of advocates to strengthen our movement. Most importantly, we must always think of how to create sustainable movements, and how will we use our current power to support and uplift those who come after us.

We must continue to fight for the future that we have always wanted: where our world is inclusive, fair, and collaborative; where Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities and all communities are self-determined, empowered, and engaged. The time for us to build a society of movers and shakers who will change our world is not now. Our time never should be now, it’s always.

To get involved with APIAVote and to help us to always uplift and engage young people, follow us on Facebook and Twitter @APIAVote and feel free to email Kathryn at kquintin@apiavote.org.